Lemsip

Being a fellow UK based shareholder who last attended in 2019, I found the simplest process was simply to collect the credentials in person the Friday preceding the meeting from the "Will Call" area. You just show up with a copy of your borkerage statement ( electronic works too) and an ID. There was a bit of a line initially of folks eager to do this first but this quickly cleared and it was pretty easy and quick to walk in, collect the credentials and leave. I tried getting the credentials via my UK broker but they were not structured or able to get this done and in the end, picking them up in person was the simplest process. Obviously this only works if you can do this the day before in the afternoon

Down 3.5% in GBP. Brk,Mkl and Unilever top performers with visa, mastercard not too bad. Alphabet and growth names ( Terry Smith type stocks) took a beating but overall happy to have survived 2022 with most of my capital intact. Feeling ok about next 3 years with a defensive portfolio which is cheaper across the board.

In his letter published last year the figure he quoted was $41b. This year's contribution is around $4b at current prices so the total donated should be around $45b. https://berkshirehathaway.com/donate/jun2321.pdf

Thanks. What source is this from ?

I have held Berkshire for more than 20 years and never found a UK broker that was switched on to the AGM related admin process for any US listed firm. Interactive Investor do a reasonable job of adminstering UK listed companies though but don't have a clue regarding US co's. I used to have a few BRK shares in a US account ( with Citibank) in NY and they faithfully used to send all AGM material to me in the UK. I switched the holdings on to something else so no longer get the BRK material from them. In any case it is simple enough to just show up with a printed copy of your brokerage statement and do this the day before the meeting and that's what a lot of the overseas attendees ( of which there are usually a lot) tend to do.

I am a UK shareholder though not attending the AGM this year. I did go in 2019. The process of getting credentials is pretty straightforward and I didn't bother doing it in advance. If you arrange your schedule accordingly, you can turn up at the venue the day before and go to the "Will Call" area with a copy of a brokerage statement showing a Berkshire holding. Standing in line takes longer than the credentials process which is less than a minute. Then you use the credentials to attend the following day. I used II and Eqi at the time but they weren't really clued in on the Berkshire credentials process so I just took a printed copy of the statements along on the day. Some people were also showing statements on their smartphone to get credentials.

I thinks the error is due to the wrong B share equivalent as of Dec 31 used in your table. Per the 10-K it should be 1,543,960 A share or 2,315,940,000 B share equivalents ( page K-107 of 10-K). The B share number for Dec 31 in your table should be 1,350,043,471 rather than the one used. That will help get to the correct figure as your A share number for Dec 31 is correct from the 10-K.

I don't think your calculations are correct as your share equivalents correspond to mine but your dollar amount calculations seem too low. They had already purchased $4.4b worth by 17th Feb if you use 233 as the avg price per b share till then

Roughly $5b quarter to March 3 reducing share count by a further 0.92% since Dec 31.

I think it is fair to consider these if you are looking at an estimate of earning power. Obviously for valuation purposes, the public securities portfolio is quoted regularly so the maket's valuation is included in book value. Berkshire owns 5.4% of Apple and as it stands you would not be able to get an accurate picture of Berkshire's true earning power derived from its Apple stake as only dividends received show up on the income statement. In comparison, KHC earning power is regularly reflected on the income statemen due to equity accounting although the form of ownership is essentially the same with a 26.4% ownership in this case. The issue is whether Bloomstran is being aggressive in the numbers he is using. I don't think he is. The 2019 Annual report had a table at the start of the letter which shows the retained earnings for just the top 10 portfolio holdings were $9b. Bloomstran uses $10b for the entire portfolio a year later so it doesn't look like he has applied unduly optimistic values here.

9% in USD and 5.65% in GBP. Happy with that. Was largely inactive all year ( including in March). Sold down a bit of BRK after the AGM where Buffett appeared spooked. Should've held. Best performers - NKE, GOOG Just 2 MKL, DEO had YTD losses. Positioned OK for next year although have to constantly resist the urge to trim NKE ( approaching 3x from my buy price of $51 in 2017).

In 2019 they were repurchasing till March the 29th so I don't think this is an issue.

Berkshire is down more than 7% in Frankfurt right now so a big one might be on its way.

For Berkshire the key issue is not whether this is a bubble ( I personally don't see it at current interest rates and equity valuations). They key issue is with the amount of cash they have accumulated and lacking reinvestment opportunities, this is time to use for returning capital to shareholders. That needs to be a far more important part of the allocation process than it hitherto has been. Certainly, most other money managers would not be afforded luxury the building up hundreds of billions of shareholder cash waiting for the phone to ring. Also, it is a myth that Buffett only invests when there are market dislocations. He wasn't particularly aggressive in 2008 ( focussing mainly on preferred fixed income type arrangements) nor in 1987 ( when he did nothing) or 1999. He was also totally inactive in Q4 2018 when the market dived 20% - a rare event. The key current capital allocation issues are size and shrinking universe and a hesitation to aggressively repurchase even when Berkshire has been cheap. Sitting on cash waiting for a future meltdown involves too much faith in specific future events and is also limited by Buffett's age and the lack of anyone else at Berkshire who can claim any experience allocating sums of this amount.

As someone with almost a 50% position in Berkshire, I agree that the capital allocation in the last 5 years has been sub-par and frustrating to an extent. Since the end of 2014 - Cash has doubled from 58 to 116 billion ( not 128 as reported in the media) Operating earnings generated and retained have been 93 billion ( virtually all cash) About 37bn of this capital has been deployed in sizeable new deals - $22b for PCP ( rest by debt) , $5b new commitment to KHC and $10b in OXY preferred. PCP has been subpar as earnings seem to be static since 2015, KHC has been a disaster and OXY should work out OK but is unlikely to move the needle at Berkshire. His straight equity deals have been better with exiting IBM, loading up on Apple and building a JPM position basically looked good. Buybacks in size - as in 2011- have been an opportunity missed due to thumb sucking and overly complicated self imposed rules. I think at the current price, Berkshire continues to be safe and bullet proof but I am not comfortable with a move to a market timing operation of hoarding cash sitting around waiting for a market event when the allocation model is totally centralized to 2 90 year olds. Market timing is iffy at the best of times but especially if practised by a couple of guys for whom time is the one thing they have a decreasing amount of with each passing day. The next rung of capital allocators have no experience or track record of handling anything like the amounts of capital that will needs to be allocated if all earnings continue to be retained. I do feel that one of the aspects that the market is not pricing is the possibility that allocation will become more rational post Buffett in that management will be less bound by self imposed constraints in returning capital to shareholders via buybacks. New deals may also improve since the Buffett model of wait for the phone to ring will not work for others so that operation may need to be a bit more proactive. These last 5 years have included 2 periods of weak markets - 2015 and 2018 and the 2018 plunge was pretty brutal so it is not as if it has been a market going straight up without any opportunities for rational buybacks in size or other purchases.